Transcript Document 7471360

Regional and Bilateral Arrangements for Labor
Mobility: Potentials and Challenges?
Md. Shahidul Haque
IOM Regional Representative for the Middle East
UN ESCWA – ALO Regional Workshop on “Movement of Natural
Persons and its Implications on Development in the Arab States”
Cairo, 5 – 6 September 2007
Introduction
 International labor mobility is a trans-national
process and neither destination nor origin
countries can address all related issues acting
alone.
 Since the beginning of industrial civilization,
people have been moving to provide services or
to promote goods/services in foreign markets.
 It was managed though consular and/or trade
arrangements
mainly
between
two
countries/entities.
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Introduction
 International labor mobility remains a highly
regulated affair between or among states.
 Labor mobility can be viewed from two general
perspectives:
 Trade negotiation perspective
 Labor market perspective
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Overall Migration and Mode 4
Migrants worldwide -- all categories
191 million
labor migrants
86 million*
Temporary labor
migrants
?
?
Mode 4
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*ILO estimates (Sept 2006)
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Overall Migration and
Mode 4
Mode 4: a very small number of
highly-skilled persons
191 million
In financial terms:
86 million*
considerable impact and
potential
?
?
3% liberalization for labor mobility may
lead to global economic welfare gains of
US 300 billions
for both developing and
developed countries
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Political Economy of Labor
Mobility
Migrants
(rights)
Markets
(liberalization/profit)
Destination Countries
(sovereignty)
Origin Countries
(benefit)
Transit
Countries
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Arrangements for Labor Mobility
 Existing
arrangements
on
movements
employment overseas are as follows:
for
•Multilateral: no global arrangement for labor
mobility.
•Regional: mainly trade and integration
agreements with provisions for labor mobility.
• Bilateral: agreements for labor mobility and/or
trade agreements with provisions for labor
mobility.
•Unilateral: policies of some countries for labor
mobility.
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Multilateral Arrangements
 No comprehensive global system or instrument to
manage labor mobility.
 States jurisdiction to regulate migratory flows.
 Differences exist between labor origin and
destination countries.
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Regional Arrangements
involving Labor Mobility
 Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) mainly aim at
decreasing trade barriers between parties (not to
manage labor mobility).
 It treats mobility mainly in four ways:
 Comprehensively deals with labor mobility
including permanent and temporary mobility.
 Allows free movement of labor (entry to local labor
market).
 Provides limited movement of labor.
 Provides limited movement only for service
providers (no labor mobility) - GATS
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Examples of RTAs and Labor Mobility
 RTAs providing full mobility of labor:




European Union
Agreement on the European Economic Area (ECA)
European Free Trade Association (EFTA)
Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
(COMESA)
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Examples RTAs…..
 RTAs providing market access for certain groups:



Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
and Canada – Chile Free Trade Agreement.
Group of Three (Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico)
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Examples RTAs….
 RTAs using the GATS model with some additional
elements:


ASIA Free Trade Area (AITA)
Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements
(Morocco and Tunisia)
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Examples RTAs…
 Agreements using the GATS model
 Southern Common Market Agreement
(MERCOSUR)
 Agreements providing facilitated entry for labor (no
market access)
 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum.
 South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
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Bilateral Arrangements involving
Labor Mobility
 Though a common mechanism to regulate interstate labor mobility and much more widely used
than RTAs, most temporary labor mobility takes
place outside bilateral state arrangements.
 BLA is an arrangement (Treaties and MOU)
between states, regions and public institutions
that provide for the recruitment and employment
of foreign short or long term labor (OECD).
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Bilateral Arrangements
 By 1900, trading nations or entities concluded
bilateral arrangements under “Treaties of
Friendship, Commerce and Navigation (FCN)” to
provide limited right for establishment/mobility.
 In post WW – II, industrial nations resolved to
labor recruitment from abroad to address
domestic labor shortage.
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Bilateral Arrangements
 By end of 1960s, a number of European countries
and the USA entered into bilateral agreements for
employing foreign workers (most of these
agreements were discontinued or replaced by the
1970’s).
 By the early 1990’s: renewed interest in BLAs,
faced with labor demand particularly European
countries signed agreements with non European
countries to facilitate entry of labor.
 In Asia, by late 70s bilateral agreements have
tended to address the labor mobility issues.
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Objectives of BLAs
 Can bring order and predictability in the
management of labor markets (recruitment,
placement, integration and return).
 BLAs address flow of low-skilled labor in
particular.
 Origin Countries:
•
increase access to foreign labor market.
•
enhance economic development (remittance,
transfer of skill/knowledge).
•
higher protection for migrants.
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Objectives …
 Destination Countries:
•
ease labor shortage and forge commercial and
economic relations with origin countries.
•
assist integration of foreign workers in a host
economy and society.
• Reduce irregular migration
•
ensure return of migrants after end of the
arrangement/labor market demands
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Categories of Bilateral
Arrangements
 The most common categories of BLA are as
follows:
•
Seasonal or guest worker agreement.
•
Contract/project linked agreement.
•
Agreements for trainee or other short-term
training programs.
•
Working and holiday schemes.
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Examples of BAs including BTAs for
Labor Mobility
Canada Seasonal Agricultural Workers
Program.
Australia – New Zealand Closer Economic
Relations (ANZCERTA).
Japan – Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
US – Jordan Free Trade Agreement.
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Migration Management
and Mode 4
Two sets of realities
Developed along parallel tracks
Governmental
policies & practices
for
migration
management
Mode 4
Mode 4: not a migration agreement ; it’s about trade in services
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Migration Management
and Mode 4
Two sets of realities
Developed along parallel tracks
Relevant regulatory framework:
Governmental
policies & practices
for
migration
management
Mode 4
Framework governing migration
Mode 4: not a migration
agreement ; it’s about trade in services
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Conclusion
 Regional and bilateral arrangements concerning
labor mobility have evolved rapidly through
broadening its scope, implementation process
and institutional framework.
 Difficult to measure effectiveness of these
arrangements as they often pursue several
objectives.
 Success of these arrangements depend on the
“political” will of the states and stakeholders.
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Thank you indeed.
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